


Life’s Short

by ProudGeek4Ever



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:00:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProudGeek4Ever/pseuds/ProudGeek4Ever
Summary: The sky is painted grey and the clouds are darker than they've been in ages.It seems fitting that it's raining. Not pouring, but drizzling.Thunder can be heard coming from afar.Despite the terrible weather thousands of people are there. All dressed in black.Nearly everyone is crying.OrLuka has a hard time at Ladybug’s funeral.
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 16
Kudos: 122





	Life’s Short

She visits.

They hadn't planned anything, but she comes anyway.

The afternoon quickly passes and turns into evening.

His heart becomes lighter each time her laugh fills the room. He feels like he's walking on clouds.

The melody her heart is always playing is soothing, but maybe that's because he's played it so much.

Several times he finds himself wishing for the moment to last forever. For her to be by his side forever.

He should know better because she is his friend and it would be wrong to wish for more.

He still does.

And when she leaves his heart cries out to keep her close. Don't let her go.

She steps off the Liberty and the unsettled feeling doesn't go away.

It only gets worse.

* * *

A few hours later he finds out why. The screen of his phone lights up with a news alert.

**Hawkmoth Finally Apprehended; Ladybug Dies in Final Confrontation**

His world stops.

* * *

The sky is painted grey and the clouds are darker than they've been in ages.

It seems fitting that it's raining. Not pouring, but drizzling.

Thunder can be heard coming from afar.

Despite the terrible weather thousands of people are there. All dressed in black.

Nearly everyone is crying.

**"We're gathered here today to say our final farewell to a woman who fought for us until her dying breath."**

And she did it for years.

She was young when this all began. When she was given those earrings and with them a responsibility too great for any teenager.

But she still did it.

He doesn't think it was fair.

**"Time and time again she stepped up against threats we weren't equipped to handle."**

They weren't either.

They were kids that had been given magical jewellery and too many expectations.

Sometimes he could still imagine the weight of the bracelet around his wrist. He'd been happy to help. To take a bit of the load off her shoulders.

But there was so many timelines he'd never tell anyone about.

He would take them to his grave because no one should have to carry that weight.

**"Time might have passed, but her resolve never weakened."**

He remembers seeing her on the news. He also remembers the first time he'd met her in real life and the first time he'd met Marinette.

He remembers hearing the same song.

She was thirteen when she first put on a mask.

She was nineteen when she put it on for the last time.

**"She never lost that determination she once had when she declared war on a terrorist when we didn't yet believe in her."**

People had always doubted her. He'd heard her complain about it more times than he could count.

She was too clumsy, too naive or too optimistic.

His first thought had been that she'd go far.

**"She never gave up."**

Marinette Dupain-Cheng had been many things through the years he'd known her.

A quitter had never been one of them.

**"Less than a week ago she and Chat Noir made their final stand against Hawkmoth."**

They hadn't told anyone.

Through years of data and research they'd finally been able to figure out Hawkmoth's identity. Gabriel Agreste.

All the heroes that had popped up over the years and they hadn't told a single one of them. Trust hadn't even been a factor. Secret identities had been lost long ago.

But in the beginning it had been Ladybug and Chat Noir and in the end it was once again only them.

**"He was defeated, but she lost her life in the process."**

When he'd seen the news report he'd frozen.

Time had seemingly stopped and breathing was suddenly an impossible task.

She couldn't be gone. There was so many things left he had to say to her. Things he hadn't said because there hadn't been a good time.

Regret and sorrow had overwhelmed him as echoes of a laugh heard only hours before haunted him.

He didn't sleep that night.

**"She won't get to experience a world where emotions can't be exploited."**

Once he'd asked her why she kept doing it. Going out and fighting when she kept getting hurt.

He would never forget her answer.

_Because he isn't allowed to make people afraid of feeling bad. I refuse to let that pass._

**"She won't get to experience what she fought so hard for."**

He'd seen her laying on the floor too exhausted to move.

He'd noticed her lock her hurt deep within her because she couldn't afford to lose control.

He'd been there for her when nightmares would plague her sleep.

People would remember Ladybug physically fighting the monsters they couldn't touch. He would remember Marinette mentally fighting each and every day.

**"Chat Noir has since retired, but before he did he explained what happened."**

They didn't fault Adrien for it.

He couldn't have known his father was a criminal.

The press might not believe it, but they did.

Someday he might too.

**"He told us how happy they were when it was finally over."**

It was a moment they'd all dreamed about.

That moment where everything would be over and they could finally rest.

It was a fantasy they'd talked about long into the night. Making up all these things they would finally be able to do.

**"How for just one moment they'd let themselves celebrate."**

_"We could leave," she says one night when it's well past midnight._

_The girl were having a sleepover at the Liberty, but they were the only ones still awake._

_"Where would we go?" he asks her in a whisper._

_"Anywhere." Her eyes sparkle. "Everywhere."_

**"They weren't prepared for the building to collapse."**

They'd shown a video on the news. A security camera across the street.

None of the fighting can be seen and it all looks normal.

Then the building starts to collapse brick for brick. Suddenly all three figures can be seen.

A red figure swinging one direction and a black one dragging a third a different way.

He sees how she's hit by a stray piece of debris only to seconds later be buried by the remains of a mansion.

**"She wasn't prepared to die."**

No nineteen year old should be.

**"We are here to say goodbye to one of our heroes."**

He clenches his eyes shut.

She'd become his best friend and he'd held out hope for the possibility of being more one day.

He'd never given up on that.

He had never stopped loving her.

**"We don't know much about her and we never will."**

All of his senses were screaming.

It felt wrong. Awfully wrong.

He might need to throw up.

**"But we know that she loved Paris."**

She'd grown up here.

It had always been home and he could sympathize.

The ghosts are getting harder to ignore though.

**"And in her final moments she knew that she had set us free."**

She'd made a promise and she had followed through.

His stomach is still making flips.

This shouldn't be happening.

**"Let her never be forgotten."**

Like it was ever possible.

**"May she rest in peace."**

* * *

The graveyard was filled with people, but silence reigned as an empty coffin was lowered down into the earth.

No eye was left dry.

And then it was done.

* * *

A lot of people had turned up to the funeral.

It had been broadcasted live for anyone that couldn't come.

When it was all over they started leaving.

Some stayed to pay their respects, but eventually they all left.

Soom he was the only one left.

The weather was clearing up just a little bit like it knew it was over.

He crouches.

The headstone before him standing tall.

**Ladybug**

**Brave until her dying breath**

**2024**

He drops a single red rose on the fresh grave.

* * *

"Funny," he hears a voice behind him say. "I've never considered myself brave."

He smiles as he stands up. "You've never been especially self aware either."

Marinette only laughs. Her entire being shines in a way it hasn't for a very long time. She's finally happy and the cast around her arm doesn't put a dampener on her good mood. "How was the funeral?"

"Painful," is all he says.

The thought alone of her being dead is too much for him to handle.

It's wrong in so many ways.

"You know you didn't have to come. I didn't even turn up."

He doesn't answer that.

There's simply no words for it.

Instead he changes the topic. "Have you finished packing?"

She nods. "Yeah, all done. And you know I actually realised something."

"You realised something while you were packing your suitcase?"

"No," she answers. "I've been thinking about it for a few days. Ever since..."

Ever since she'd had a building dropped on her and miraculously survived with some minor scrapes and bruises plus a broken arm.

He swallows. "What have you been thinking about?"

"Life's short," she whispers. "And it can be cut short at any time. I don't want to regret anything."

And he gets it.

How many things hadn't he regretted those hours he'd been so sure that he'd lost her forever?

"You don't want any regrets."

"No, I don't."

She pulls him in for a kiss.


End file.
